Hill, Gerri - Angel Fire

Andrea smiled and shook her head as she filled up her water bottles like the others were doing. Cameron had already scoped out the area and determined that they did not cross the river. Of course, that didn’t mean that they didn’t cross it later on.

They walked single file again, with Tori between them this time. Andrea knew Tori was worried about Sam, but she’d done a good job of hiding it. Even her bickering with Cameron had lessened. Or Cameron’s bickering with her. They were both strong-willed and thought they were right. Andrea had learned how to temper Cameron’s stubbornness. She wondered if Sam could control Tori with just a look too.

She tried to imagine what Sam Kennedy was like. Tori’s affection for her was deep, obviously. Andrea imagined her to be soft where Tori was hard. She imagined Sam was a people person, making up for Tori’s rather gruff demeanor. Of course, Tori’s behavior in this situation might not be anything like who she really was. Stressful situations usually exposed all sides of a person.

While their pace was quick, Cameron had to stop a few times to get her bearings. At one point, she lost the trail under a canopy of thick trees. They were walking on nothing but pine needles and nothing looked disturbed. Andrea and Tori waited while Cameron crisscrossed the area, finally finding a mark Sam must have left.

“Here.”

Andrea walked closer. It was but a small indention in the earth, and she wondered how Cameron had even spotted it.

“Are you sure?”

Cameron paused. “No. Son of a bitch,” she muttered. “Stay here. Both of you.”

Andrea nodded, and she looked at Tori who was watching Cameron intently. Cameron went back to where they’d lost the trail and backtracked a bit, then got back on it. She walked carefully, perhaps putting her feet where she thought Angel and Sam had walked. When she got to the bed of pine needles, she stopped.

“What’s she doing?” Tori whispered.

“Because of the ground cover, Angel might have used that as an opportunity to take a sharp turn,” she said. She looked at Tori. “She’ll find the trail. Don’t worry.”

Tori nodded, but her eyes remained glued to Cameron.

Cameron looked up. “Andi, come here.”

Andrea nodded and joined her.

“Keep on my mark.”

Andrea stood where Cameron had been, then watched as Cameron went left and right, ten spaces out, then back. She repeated this three times before she found their trail again. It was nearly twenty-five feet from where Andrea stood.

“Got it.” Cameron pointed to a broken tip on the limb of a young pine. “She’s doing good.”

Before they’d gone ten steps, however, a single gunshot—far off in the distance—broke the silence. She and Cameron exchanged glances.

Tori tilted her head. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah. It could be anyone.”

Andrea could see the panic in Tori’s eyes.

“It could be Sam,” Tori said as she headed up the hill.

Cameron grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“That could be Sam!” Tori yelled, yanking her arm out of Cameron’s grasp.

“It could be anybody,” Cameron said. “We stay on their trail.”

Before Tori could reply, another shot was heard. Tori flinched and Cameron grabbed her arm again.

“We’re still a couple of hours behind them, Hunter. You think we’re the only people out on this mountain? That could be anybody. We’ve got to stay focused.”

Andrea wished she could take solace in Cameron’s words. But she didn’t. And she knew Tori Hunter didn’t either. They were in the middle of nowhere, not close to a trail. The chances of that gunshot being from a third party was slight. She knew it. Cameron knew it. And most likely Tori knew it.

“Come on.”

Tori nodded but didn’t speak. Andrea noted her clenched jaw, the hands that were balled into fists. She could only imagine what she was thinking.

* * *

Sam shook her head. “I’m not sure that I can do it.”

“They taste like chicken, Sam.”

Sam looked at the two squirrels he held up by the tails. Cute, fuzzy little squirrels. She looked back at Angel skeptically.

“You ate the fish,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, fish. Not cute little squirrels.”

“Think of them as rodents then.”

She laughed. “Oh, yeah. That’s helping my appetite right there, Angel.”

“Well, there’s some more of that beef stew you like so much,” he said as he pulled out his knife. “I’m going to clean and skin them. You don’t have to eat them if you don’t want.”

“We’ll see.”

She went about gathering wood for their fire. There was still a little daylight left and she was surprised that he’d stopped already. Not that she was complaining. The last hour had them steadily climbing and her legs were like jelly.

She looked back from where they’d come. It was an endless sea of trees and brush, smatterings of rocks and open spaces. The stream they were camped at was little more than a spring. The water was cool and clear, but barely three feet wide. No chance for fish. But it would allow her to clean up even if it wasn’t wide or deep enough for a bath. Her gaze left the stream and slid to where Angel had gone downstream to clean the squirrels. She wasn’t sure what was the least appetizing—the horrid beef stew or the idea of eating a squirrel.

Chapter Fifteen

Tori absently poked the fire with a stick, watching as the embers rose then disappeared. It was a still night and the smoke twirled directly overhead. She was aware of Andrea watching her, but she kept her eyes on the fire. Her dinner—a freeze-dried beef stroganoff that didn’t look half bad—was sitting beside her, largely untouched. The knot in her stomach wouldn’t allow her to eat.

As Cameron had said, the gunshots they’d heard could have been from anyone. But in her gut, she knew that wasn’t true. And by Cameron’s and Andrea’s demeanor, they knew it too. As much as she wanted to stay positive, as much as she wanted to believe that Sam was okay, she had to face the fact that Sam was a hostage, held by a killer. A man who had gone on a killing spree and in one day had murdered at least eleven people, including his own team. That told her he had no loyalty to anyone. And that also told her that Sam was in grave danger. The shots they’d heard today reminded her of that.

She refused to believe that he’d killed Sam. No. She couldn’t even think that. Maybe the shots had been a warning. Maybe Sam had tried to escape.

Andrea stirred and Tori glanced over at her. As expected, Andrea’s eyes were on her. In the firelight, Tori recognized the sympathetic look in them. Andrea surely knew what thoughts were flying around in her mind. But Tori said nothing and neither did Andrea. Cameron too had been quiet. And really, what could they say?

Nothing.

So she sat there alone, silently brooding over the possibility that something might have happened to Sam. If Sam was taken from her, she thought her very soul might likely die right then and there. Would she revert back to the old ways? Would she shut herself off from everyone? Would she go back into the darkness that had swallowed her up after her family’s murder?

She would try, surely. But she knew Casey and Leslie wouldn’t let her. They loved her. They would keep her sane. She would try to hide from them too, but she knew O’Connor would badger her until she let them back in.

She shook her head, hating the direction of her thoughts. Sam was okay. She had to be. She just had to be.

* * *

“Okay, so it does taste a little like chicken,” Sam said as she pulled the meat from the bone. “A little.”